One day everything is easy. The next, everything that can go wrong, does. One minute, everyone tells you you’re great. The next, they’ve all ganged up against you. Life is too short…and interminably long. Things move insanely fast…and also take forever.

Look at Marcus Aurelius’ life. He loses his father…and is then adopted by two powerful stepfathers. He’s suddenly thrust into power…then forced to wait 19 years to wield it. He’s blessed by enormous wealth…and haunted by tragedy after tragedy. Even his job is emotionally manipulative and impossible–at one point Marcus Aurelius describes being emperor as a kind of deranged world where one “earns a bad reputation by good deeds.”

When the Stoics talked about the need for an even keel, this was why.

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And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses why the Stoics encourage us to reach out for help when we need it.

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